Speak to Me
by Higurazel
Summary: Another fic set in the "Domino City PD" AU. Following on from the story "Details", Bakura and Mai are held captive by a sadistic psychopath deep below Domino City. Conceitshipping  Mai X Yami Bakura . Warning for Grim.


_Note: The "__**Otogi Incident**__" refers to the events of the story "__**Details**__"._

**BELOW DOMINO CITY**

**14 DAYS AFTER THE "Otogi Incident"**

Somewhere, a train was passing.

Whether it was a few feet or a whole mile away, whether it was travelling above, below or alongside the slick grey stones of the cell, it was hard to know for certain. Bakura doubted it mattered. A screech of steel on steel, echoing through some unknown tunnel, sparks lighting an unseen blackness. The train roared away into some other distant stretch of track, its sounds quickly dying off.

Peace finally flooded the underground chamber once again, leaving only the sounds of two people breathing.

Balura took a look about his prison for the hundredth time that... Day? Night? He knew he would kill to have a watch with him. Anything to keep track of when he was. Grey stonework in every direction. Ceilings, walls, floor - All the same featureless rock. An iron bar ran through the centre of the ceiling, blackened and corroded, dipping in the middle as though it were ready to crack at any second and spill the entire roof down into the chamber. On the far wall, a recess lead to a staircase heading up. It was visible for only a handful of steps before it was swallowed up in the darkness. A single fluorescent bulb was set into the left hand wall, surrounded by a sparse web of a cage.

Bakura sat with his back in the corner, eyes now snaking over the bars ahead of him. The whole room was split into three sections, a set of iron poles forming a "T" shape. One half of the room housing the staircase and lightbulb, one quarter was Bakura's cell, completely devoid of any trappings, furniture or decoration. The final quarter belonged to the other occupant of this dismal chamber. She sat, watching him, her eyes dark and blotched from lack of sleep, long blonde hair knotted and ragged, dry thin lips cracked. He was certain that he looked just as tired and defeated as she did. He could feel it every time he shifted his weight, bones cracking audibly. She wore a black waistcoat over what had once been a perfectly pressed blouse - Casino worker, he had called it as soon as he first saw her. Where had she worked though? He had been in every casino in town more times than he could rightly recall, but this woman didn't stand out in his mind.

"Whose turn is it next?" She asked, her voice barely penetrating the ceiling of whispering. She blinked heavily and drew her knees up to her chest, hugging her legs, resting her head.

Bakura opened his mouth to speak, and a flurry of coughs and splutters erupted from his throat. He gagged, clutching at his mouth as he fought for breath, eyes screwed tight. It felt as though his body was attempting to force whole lungfuls of dust out past his lips. He grimaced as the coughing fit came to an end, removing his hand and finding himself unsurprised by the dark patches of blood that now flecked his skin. He tried again.

"Let's see," He said, trying to speak as softly as possible for his throat's sake, "It was me, then you, then me, then me again, then you, then me, then you three times in a row..." He looked up at the ceiling as though it would help jog his memory, "Then me twice again, then you, then me three times, then you..."

"1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3..." She tapped her fingernails along the floor of her cell as she recited the numbers.

"It's no use looking for a pattern," he told her, "That's not how he works."

"Right, I forgot. He's a good buddy of yours."

"Well, yes and no." Bakura closed his eyes and pressed his head into the corner of the cell. "As I mentioned, he looks a lot like an old business partner of mine, and he's certainly party to some... Inside knowledge... But there's no way you could describe he and I as 'Good Buddies' Miss Kujaku."

"Call me Mai." She sighed, drumming her fingers over her knee. "Any chance of getting out of here is looking slimmer and slimmer all the time, if we're going to be trapped here together then I don't want to be stuck on ceremony with you... Bakura, wasn't it?"

"Indeed it was..."

Silence followed. Bakura wiped the blood onto his trousers before it dried.

Somewhere in the distance, a door opened and closed. Footsteps started down the staircase.

**BELOW DOMINO CITY**

**18 DAYS AFTER THE "Otogi Incident"**

Mai hadn't moved for an hour after their jailer had returned her to the cells. At least, it seemed like an hour. She lay with her back to his cell and Bakura had kept his eyes fixed on her, watching the curve of her back slowly, painfully rise and then fall. She was alive, that was all he could gleam.

"1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1 so far then?" He said, trying to get a response from her. Anything. Normally when she returned from a session with that maniac that had them captive, she would try and engage Bakura in conversation as quickly as possible. She would try and talk about anything but her ordeal while she had been away from the cell. It was an unspoken agreement they had. Do not talk about what he did to you. Talk about anything, just not that. Make like it never happened. Make jokes. Beat him. Don't let him break you.

Mai turned herself to lie on her back, her head turning to face him. Bakura had seen plenty in his time. At one time he could quite rightly have been considered the most feared man in all of Domino City. He had seen suffering and caused it an untold number of times. He had never seen anything like Mai's eyes. Nothing that even came close to the vacated, bottomless stare that bored into him. She simply wasn't there. Bakura looked deep into an empty human being. A shell with no-one in it. Whatever her body had suffered through, it had pushed her out.

Bakura flung himself toward Mai's cell, sprawling down onto his belly, getting to eye-level with her. His face was pressed against the bars that separated them.

"Hey! Hey you!" He shouted, his throat burning with every noise. "Don't you do this! Don't you dare go pull a disappearing act on me. You get back here right this second!"

If his words were having any effect on her, she didn't show it. "Don't even think about leaving me here!" He snapped his fingers in front of her face, grimacing as he pushed his arms as far as he could through the bars. "Come on, say something!" He was on the verge of screaming at her, "Anything! Say anything!"

She made a noise. It was a quiet groan. It barely classed above silence, and for a moment, Bakura wasn't certain he had even truly heard it. He watched as she started to return. Her eyes were starting to lose the glazed over look, beginning to slicken with tears.

"He didn't do it for himself." She whispered, her eyes starting to streak left and right, tears running heavily now. "He just... He just..."

"Stop it!" Bakura shouted, tasting the tang of blood on his teeth. "Don't you dare talk about it! You're here now, you're back with me. Do you understand? It's over." She shook her head and started to turn away.

Bakura found himself sorting frantically through a hundred words, desperate to keep her talking.

"Do you know what I'm going to do when we get out of here?" He said, wrapping his around the iron bar and propping himself up. "I'm going to give my secretary that raise she's been clammering on about for years. And then I'm heading straight to your casino Mai. I'm going to keep winning until it stops being funny. And then... And then..." He struggled to think, "Well, I'm hiring better security for a start. Two jobs they had. Don't let anything happen to me, and don't get killed. Failed at both. You get what you pay for I suppose."

No response.

"Come on Mai! What are you going to do as soon as we get out of here?"

Silence.

Bakura shut his eyes and slumped down the bar. So close. He almost had her back. Now he was alone in this cell, spending time between sessions with this psychotic Malik-a-like with only his own voice for company.

"I..." Mai still lay facing the ceiling, but her eyes seemed much more focussed. She was thinking hard. "I'm going to beat the everloving crap out of Jounouchi for not getting here sooner." She said.

"Your Boyfriend?"

"Something like that." The words seemed forced. She was trying. She was desperately trying to trick herself into thinking about anything but her previous ordeal. Bakura got the feeling that practically anyone else would have been long gone by now. "He's a cop."

"Jounouchi Katsuya?"

"You know him?" Mai turned to face him once again.

"You don't get to where I am in the world without being on first name terms with a vast amount of the local police force."

Truth be told, Bakura had always overlooked Katsuya. He was ruled by his emotions. He was poorly motivated within the police force, but became a living hurricane of bother once things became personal. The man took any slight as a personal vendetta, and would bring hell to anyone that crossed him. Someone that headstrong and easily baited had never been considered more than a "Minor annoyance" in Bakura's thoughts, when he could be bothered to think of these things at all. Now he was locked in a room with the kidnapped girlfriend of a man who would probably pull a gun on someone and attempt to arrest them for giving him a "Funny look". Bakura found himself smiling for the first time since he had found himself here.

It was just a matter of time until they were out of here.

**BELOW DOMINO CITY**

**XX MONTHS AFTER THE "Otogi Incident"**

Mai finished reciting the numbers. She craned her neck around, looking away from the wall at Bakura's general direction. It looked like she was smiling. Maybe proud of herself for remembering the entire combination of numbers. Her head, now completely hairless, was scarred and burned after countless "Sessions" with their jailer. Her eyelids had been sewn shut long ago, but she still made an effort to "look" at Bakura whenever she had something to say to him. She would simply turn to face his cell, eyes roving beneath her sealed lids.

Bakura watched her before turning his gaze down to the stumps where his forearms came to a sudden end. Sometimes he woke up feeling a terrible itch in his wrists or hands, a phantom pain with no chance of relief. Every time he felt like dragging his arm-stumps against the stone floor, anything to kill the tingling and itching of hands that had been taken away from him. He made a noise to assure Mai that he was still there and still listening. This Malik-creature still had Bakura's tongue in a jar somewhere. Occasionally he took it out to show it to him. Sometimes, between fits of giggles, he would promise Bakura that he would sew it back into his mouth if he behaved himself.

Bakura swallowed, almost choking. It occurred to him that right at that moment, he wanted to play I-Spy more than he could ever remember wanting anything else in his life. It would be a short game, of course, but something to break the monotony. Perhaps he just wanted to hear his own voice again, even if it was just once more.

Mai faced the wall again and started over from the beginning.

"1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 1, 2..." She carried on, reciting every last number long after Bakura had fallen asleep.


End file.
